Posted on 03/20/2014 6:18:09 AM PDT by C19fan
A simple plaque marks the forsaken spot where the Red Baron was buried in central Berlin but hardly anyone stops to remember the flying ace shot down in 1918. For Germans, the Great War holds so little interest.
The centenary of the outbreak of World War One has caught Germany off guard, while Britain, France, the United States and others mark it with battlefield tours, television programs, exhibitions and plans for ceremonies on the day, in August.
Germans aren't sure how, or even if, they should commemorate a war that cost them 13 percent of their territory, all their colonies, huge reparations and 2.5 million lives. The government is under fire for its inactivity.
"Most Germans don't want to have anything to do with the militaristic past," said Stefan Scheybal, a mason who tends graves at the Invalids' cemetery where Manfred von Richthofen was buried, a plot of land now bisected by a busy cycle path.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Probably the most touching ode to the calamity of that war, came from Lemmy, of Motorhead......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuRxjjcPgOo
My husband and I visited Russia in 2008. We BOTH agreed that Russia had a LONG way to go to catch up with the West. They WANT it but but not very much. They are SO used to doing what they want with no consequences. Oh well. Live and learn.
Why would either Germany or Austria commemorate the beginning of their destruction?
Germany is being criticized here in the article, but Austria isn't.
I think Hungary probably came out the very worst of the bunch.
I do believe at the end of the Cold War we should have had a “Marshall Plan” for Russia to get them on their feet.
Would have paid huge dividends down the road, and I think even Reagan would have supported the idea. But Clinton and Albright wanted to rub the Russians’ noses in it.
Now the Bear is back.
Baron von Richthofen is far better known in U.S. & Britain than in today’s Germany. To the Allies, he was the dashing enemy ace of aces, and a worthy opponent celebrated even by his foes. He was also Snoopy’s main adversary in comic & song. He is currently immortalized as a brand of pizza.
The Red Baron met his end when he chased a low flying British fighter plane over enemy lines (Australian). Bad move; every gun on the ground that could shoot was aimed at the brilliant scarlet triplane with Maltese crosses. A single machine gun bullet pierced his chest left to right & his plane pancaked into the ground.
The only remaining mystery is whether Richthofen was killed instantly or lived seconds longer to crash land his plane.
France and England's method of peace lasted barely 20 years.
Here's an appropriate song:
Thanks for the Memory--Charlie & His Orchestra (c. 1941)
Thanks for the memory
In every German's mind, when you broke the ties that bind
And dictated a peace called the Treaty of Versailles
How rotten that was!
Thanks for the memory
Of British aims devine, French Negroes on the Rhine,
The food blockade and misery throughout the German Reich
What an injustice that was!
Many's the time that you feasted
And many's the time that we fasted.
For you, it was swell while it lasted.
You did have fun, but harm was done.
So, thanks for the memory.
It gives us strength to fight
For freedom and for right.
It might upset you, England,
That the Germans know how to fight
And hurt you so much.
Also known as the golden BB.
Don’t forget the Franco-Prussian War.
The Frogs were spoiling for a fight for over 50 years after they got the “Atomic Wedgie” from the Krauts and lost Alsace-Lorraine ...
Set the stage for WWI. Treaty of Versailles punitive provisions set the stage for WWII.
Goddamn Frogs ...
I’m increasingly beginning to see it that way.
I thought Von Richthofen had a huge mausoleum?
And so overwhelmed by the shadow of World War II. There was a time back in the 70s when I sought out WWI veterans to speak to. They were all old men back then, and only one really gave me satisfaction.
It's Bulgaria's that I want to know about!
Yep, look at any calamity, and usually the French planted the seeds......WWII, Vietnam, Rwanda....
Ah yes, the Treaty of Versaillespunishment. That is always such a successful strategy, isnt it? (rhetorical)
We did the same to Russia, at the end of the Cold War, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
That's funny. I don't recall a Versailles, and most certainly a Nuremberg, after the Cold War. If you ask me the Russians got away with it and a lot of the rulers today are identical to the ones back then.
I don't think Russia has paid anything for its crimes against humanity.
“The day not half over and ten thousand slain,”
And that’s putting it mildly.
Opening day of The Somme (1916) - 20,000 dead by lunchtime.
So if you did make them "pay", what do you think that would accomplish?
Hmm. Maybe . . . but be careful what you wish for.
Would have paid huge dividends down the road, and I think even Reagan would have supported the idea. But Clinton and Albright wanted to rub the Russians noses in it.
And just when did they do this?
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